3 Ways To Get A Raise Without Asking For Ithttp://www.businessinsider.com/get-a-raise-without-asking-for-it-2014-7/comments
en-usWed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 -0500Fri, 09 Dec 2016 10:33:33 -0500Jacquelyn Smithhttp://www.businessinsider.com/c/53b4a71b69bedd6844e18530the_real_truthWed, 02 Jul 2014 20:43:07 -0400http://www.businessinsider.com/c/53b4a71b69bedd6844e18530
Worst advice ever.
Always ask for the raise.
Document *everything* you do, every day. When it is time when YOU think you need a raise, you have actual ammunition. List your top 10 accomplishments that helped your boss and your company.
Always be absolutely clear on what the most important goal of the company is. Ask. A long time ago, I worked at a company and their major goal was to get questionmaires filled out by customers so they could get feedback and get customers names and addresses for customer retention. I was the only one to do it, and I shot up in the company. I did what THEY wanted, not what *I* thought was important. Getting those cards were more important than sales, than anything. Everyone else argued why they should do it. I didn't - I just did it. It was the first thing I thought of when I walked in the store, what I thought of at lunch, and as I left work. You can do no wrong, if you do this: Find what is most important to the *company*, then to your boss. They should mesh.
Of course, getting new business is always at the top 3 important things, and you can rarely go wrong, but it is possible. Sometimes new customer take a lot of startup investment, and your company might not be able to afford it, or maybe someone else was working on that customer and you fuck it up by getting them.
But for fuck's sake, ask. For fuck's sake. I asked for a promotion and a raise one time, and the manager looked at me in shock, and said, "Oh, ok. I didn't know you wanted one." He then promoted me.
As a matter of fact, I read somewhere that the main reasons that there is an income gap between men and women is that men *generally* ask for a raise, but women *generally* think there work will get somehow recognized and they will get a raise and promotion without asking. I worked at a accounting firm one time, and started at $30/hour ($60K/year). A month later, I asked for a raise, and they doubled my salary to $60/hour($120,000/year). Another woman came in 2 weeks after me. After a month, she asked me how much I made. I instantly told her, because I didn't give a fuck. I made a lot more than she did, and she had WAY more experience. She had an accounting degree, and I had a degree in another area, non-financial. She looked shocked, and I asked her if she asked for a raise. She said no, and I asked why. She, of course, just didn't ask because she didn't ask - simple as that. She did and was bumped up to $60/hour. I told her NEVER to sit back an wait for a raise and made her promise me. She was a very smart woman, and I am positive as hell she always asked from then on. She was a single mother of 2, and she was almost crying when she came back to me and thanked me. I could have gotten so laid by her, she was so thankful.
So, Jacquelyn Smith, for fuck's sake, ASK for your promotions and raises. Nobody is going to give them to you. Everyone, please DOCUMENT your work, daily. Sum up the most important contributions and put them on a report stating why you will get a raise. On the following pages, you can list all the other contributions. Find out the SINGLE thing, the ONE thing that the company wants, even if they say they want many things, there is only one that is priority - that the COMPANY wants - you will shoot to the top if you do this and no one else does. If they say the only thing they want is for you to do your job, that is bullshit. Find the single thing the company wants. Do your job, that has first priority, but then work on what the company needs in your "between times." But don't go around your boss.
This is the way to get ahead. Not the "get a raise without asking for it." This is the way of the timid. Sorry Jacquelyn, it is. I know you now know this, so internalize it, ok?